Tin mining

“ In every sense the tin-mining industry may be said to be one of the future, notwithstanding that it has been worked for years chiefly with a view to securing the pure tin and without much regard to the silver associated with the deposits. ”

“ Several other companies and syndicates were floated in the south-west and Perth, and for a time the future of tin mining was excitedly debated. The tin field lay on a ridge, and the greater part of the surface was covered with ironstone gravel, with here and there outcrops of hard crystalline rock, and dykes of diorite and tourmaline. The Bunbury Company sank a shaft on Stinton's claim, and found a false bottom of ironstone, in which there were pockets containing tin ore. Deeper down through a coarse quartz grit, containing a little clayey matter, richer tin ore and tourmaline were struck. ”

“ Owing to the introduction of tin from the Straits Settlements, where it is found in the condition of stream tin and can be easily worked, the tin mining in Cornwall, necessitating real mining and the following of lodes, has proved unremunerative and has been abandoned, and now but few mines are worked for the metal. Another cause has fatally affected Cornish mining—the fraudulent practice of the promoters of the mines. ”

“ It is not always the pioneer in a new mining field who strikes the richest areas, but under the guidance [72] of its highly capable engineers, Champion Gold Reefs of West Africa obtained exclusive rights over some properties and interests in options over others which promise a magnificent harvest in years to come.
It was in September 1909, that the company decided to abandon gold mining in Ashanti and devote attention to tin mining in Northern Nigeria. What were described as “very extensive alluvial tin areas” were acquired on September 20. ”

“ The yield of tin in Victoria is very small, and until lately no fields of importance have been discovered; but towards the latter end of 1899 extensive deposits were reported to exist in the Gippsland district—at Omeo and Tarwin. In South Australia tin-mining is unimportant. In Western Australia the production from the tin-fields at Greenbushes and elsewhere was valued at £87,000. Tasmania during the last few years has attained the foremost position in the production of tin, the annual output now being about £363,000. ”

“ The export of this metal has risen from 144,000 pounds in 1876 to 436,000 pounds in 1881. Tin-mining continues to attract a steady stream of Chinese immigration, and the Resident believes that the number of Chinamen has increased from twenty thousand in 1879 to forty thousand in 1881. Wealth is reckoned in slabs of tin, and lately for an act of piracy a Rajah was fined so many slabs of tin, instead of so many hogsheads of oil, as he would have been on the West African coast. ”

“ Hereabout are not only waterfalls, cañons, creeks, and huge bowlders dashed down from frost-riven peaks, for besides gold and silver, the region is said to abound with tin, that peculiarly elusive mineral which, though often found, seems to always dematerialize after the campaign is over; and though millions have been spent in developing the tin mines near Harney, the product has not yet paid the expense of mining. Three miles south of the peak are the Needles, bold-jutting pinnacles of sandstone that stand high above the bed of Squaw Creek and point their fingers toward the sky. ”

“ The area under cultivation is small except round about Patani and in Nawng Chik, where much rice is grown. Tin mining is a growing industry; many Chinese own mines and several European syndicates are at work in Raman, Ra-ngé and Patani, prospecting for, or mining, this metal. Fishing and salt-evaporation occupy a large proportion of the population. The annual export of tin is about 400 tons, and dried fish, salt, cattle and elephants are other exports. Steamers up to 300 tons maintain frequent communication with Bangkok and Singapore, and the Patani roads afford good anchorage at all seasons. ”

“ The centre of the tin-mining industry is at Tin City, a small settlement three miles west of Teller, Cape Prince of Wales, and is reached by small steamers which ply from Nome. Several corporations are developing promising properties with large stamp-mills. Both stream-tin and tin ore in ledges are found throughout the district. ”

“ In many parts of the world the lodes do not carry sufficient tin to be worked profitably. In Cornwall and in Tasmania, lodes carrying about 1 per cent. of tin are being mined; but in general a content of 1 to 2 per cent. tin is the lower limit for commercial lode mining. In Bolivia the tin lodes average 5 to 8 per cent. tin and some bodies of ore carrying as much as 40 per cent. ”

“ Placer tin deposits on the Ringarooma River (Derby district) supply about 1,000 tons of tin concentrates a year. The principal placer mines are the Pioneer and Briseis. Near Gladstone, placers and lode deposits carrying tin and tungsten are worked. At the Anchor mine, in the Blue Tier district, a tin-bearing granite averaging one-half per cent. tin is worked, but mining has not been profitable. The Renison Bell, Dreadnought-Boulder and Montana mines, in the North Dundas field, are in slates cut by dikes of quartz porphyry. Zinc, lead, and iron sulphides are important in the lodes. ”

“ The extent of the property is great, the natural facilities for mining are favourable, and the output of tin will be simply proportionate to the number of men employed. Assuming that a minimum of only 250 natives be employed, they should produce 500 tons of metallic tin per [140] annum. Taking the price of tin oxide at £85 per ton, there would be a profit of some £36,000 per annum. ”

“ The mining industry is entirely under Chinese control. Most of the tin ore is obtained by placer and open-cut methods from decomposed granitic and pegmatitic lodes which are found near the contact of granite that is intrusive into limestone. There are less important tin deposits in the Fuchuan and Tungchwan districts, the former producing a very pure metal. ”

“ Costs.—Will compare favourably with other mines in the district, i.e. with ground of moderate value the costs would amount to between £10 and £15 per ton of black tin, and present transport charges £27 10s. per ton inclusive.
“Final tests of the flats are capable of being cheaply and quickly carried out by means of trial pits; boring is unnecessary. The probability is [152] that the workable ground will prove to be of too large an area to be included in one mining lease, and that it will be necessary to split the present area into two or more properties.” ”

“ There are, as might be expected, many analogies between the mining of tin and the mining of lead. The processes were very similar, and the laws governing the workers had much in common, but it is in the case of the Stannaries that we find the full development of the 'free miner,' so far as England is concerned. Certain initial differences in the methods employed are observable owing to the form in which tin is obtained. Tin, like other metals, exists in veins or lodes embedded in the rock at various depths ”

“ Old Cornish Song.
There is scarcely a spot in Cornwall where tin is at present found, that has not been worked over by the “old men,” as the ancient miners are always called.
Every valley has been “streamed”—that is, the deposits have been washed for tin; over every hill where now a tin mine appears, there are evidences, many of them most extensive, of actual mining operations having been carried on to as great a depth as was possible in the days when the appliances of science were unknown. ”

“ Laws, the mining industry has slowly forged ahead, until the rush came along this year. Year in, year out, I have been urging companies and encouraging prospectors to come along until I almost despaired of success; but now, given a railway to the tin field, the industry cannot but prosper if the Government do not hamper it with too many restrictions. ”

“ Other Nations. —Outside of the British Empire the principal tin deposits of the world are in Bolivia, the Dutch East Indies, China, and Siam, named in the order of their importance as producers in 1918. There are small outputs of tin from deposits in Japan, Spain, Portugal, and the United States, and tin deposits are known in Germany, Italy, Russia, Belgian-Congo, and Southwest Africa.
Bolivia. —Practically all of the tin ore shipped from Bolivia is mined from lodes. Mining began late in the last century. Exports are in the form of barilla, a tin concentrate carrying 60 to 65 per cent. ”

“ Mr. Lush says the Bauchi tin deposits are richer than he has seen in any part of the world. It is, he says, a granite country, and although the existence of reefs has been proved in one part of the district, the alluvial deposits—which yield tin oxide containing about 72 per cent. of metallic tin—are of principal importance.
[58]
ALLUVIAL AND LODE MINING
Alluvial mining, has, of course, the demerit of being short-lived. There is no great depth in the deposits, and especially if they are worked economically—that is to say rapidly—they are exhausted in a comparatively short time. ”

“ But the tin can, made of plated sheet iron, is the vehicle in which kerosene has traveled to every part of the inhabited globe, and which has made it possible for the fisherman, the stockman, the farmer and the horticulturist to deliver their products in a fresh and edible condition wherever there are people who want them. It is an interesting fact that quite three quarters of the annual crop of tin now comes from the East Indies, and is gathered by Chinamen and Malays. The region is probably the most ancient mining district in the world. ”

“ The miner and the investor have generally confined their attention to iron, copper, and lead—metals that occur in huge deposits—and have disregarded the less assertive tin and gold-bearing alluvials which, when scientifically developed and economically managed, will give larger returns than any other mining in the world. ”

“ Lush, the well-known mining authority, who has examined a great part of the Province, estimates that these deposits are scattered over an area of no less than 2,500 square miles, and the tin produced is considered to be some of the best ever imported into Europe, and commands a price equal, if not higher, than the Straits tin. The land is situated about 3,000 to 4,000 feet above sea-level, and the late Director of Mines in Northern Nigeria states that the climate is equal to that of Rhodesia, if not even better.
“Few people have any idea,” Mr. ”

“ In the places where low-grade tin ores have been mined the by-products, principally arsenic and wolfram, have helped to pay expenses, and most of these mines are advantageously situated with respect to transportation and supplies. In the placers of the Malay Peninsula, including Banca and Billiton, and those of Australia, which are worked by dredges, the tin content ranges from one-half pound to as high as 3 pounds, but averages less than a pound of cassiterite to the cubic yard. Advantageous location and cheap labor make profitable exploitation possible. ”

“ The Chinese and Malays call this lost metal young, tin, which is re-turned to the earth to ripen, because it is not yet old enough to stay in their primitive machines. It is only now, after no one can tell how many centuries since tin has been known and worked in the peninsula, that a rational system of operating the mines is about to be adopted. ”

“ We know that there are considerable areas there which in some cases are very rich in alluvial tin. There are also tin lodes there; but that for the present is another story, because alluvial tin is a thing which is easily and comparatively inexpensively worked, whereas to work a lode mine requires good means of transport, and to be able to get up to the mines easily expensive and heavy machinery. We have a good climate, we have a sufficiency of water, and so far as we can ascertain, we have a sufficiency of native labour. ”

“ Imagine the descent into a mine through the sea, the miners working at the depth of 12 fathoms below the waves; the rod of a steam engine extending from the shore to the shaft, a distance of nearly 120 fathoms; and a great number of men momentarily menaced with an inundation of the sea, which continually drains in no small quantity through the roof of the mine, and roars loud enough to be distinctly heard in it.” Tin is the principal produce of this mine, and the ore is extremely rich. ”

“ Quicksilver mines are found at innumerable places, and many of them afford the richest ores. The new Almadin mine at Santa Clara gives the richest ore of which we have any accounts. With very imperfect machinery, it yields upward of fifty per cent, and the proprietors are now working it, and are preparing to quadruple their force. Iron, copper, lead, tin, sulphur, zinc, platinum, cobalt, &c. are said to be found in abundance, and most of them are known to exist in various sections of the country. ”

“ These deposits are naturally the first to fail in productiveness, but the neighboring hills are formed of a gold-bearing quartz which is being crushed, night and day, by hundreds of powerful machines; and the works still pay ten thousand miners fair day-wages, besides giving the organized companies who employ them satisfactory dividends. Thus mining has been largely robbed of its adventurous character in this neighborhood, and perhaps also of most of its alluring charm, having become a sort of regular industry, like coal-mining, or even brick-making. ”